# Things you were stunned that people didn't know **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 29, 2017, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146 "2017-06-29T17:59:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![DrForrester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@DrForrester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrForrester)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/121 "2017-07-02T01:07:43Z")
> [@ioioio](#): > > Please explain why the sun is not a yellow star. I thought it was a class G yellow dwarf and would like to know if I’m wrong. > > The sun looks yellow. Children color their sun pictures yellow. Sun emojies are yellow. Yellow rooms are described as “sunny”. Even if the sun is not yellow, it’s not strange to think it is. Our Sun only looks yellow because of impurities in our atmosphere. If it were really yellow, it would be emitting yellow light… which would mean that everything (illuminated by sunlight) that currently looks white (reflects all light) would be yellow. Our Sun emits white light. Imagine skiing on a yellow slope. I would vote for a more science literate populace that would want to describe things as important to us as the Sun & moon as accurately as possible (especially in schools). There’s always one joker out there who wants to represent the Sun as a smiley face. I get it. But, I’d like to think that people would recognize that as artistic license, rather than reality. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/122 "2017-07-02T02:38:25Z")
No. The light looks white because our retinal pigments are optimized to the spectrum of a yellow star as filtered through a nitrogen atmosphere. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/123 "2017-07-02T02:46:03Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > To not know the dates of World War I is quite reasonable, as long as it’s not wildly off. 1914-1918 isn’t a particularly easy time frame to store in memory. > > What would be stunning would be if someone thought World War I took place after World War II, or something like that. How about not being able to figure out what war a book written in the 1920s is referring to when it talks of “The Great War,” and after it is explained, still somehow not getting why it wasn’t referred to as “WWI”? ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/124 "2017-07-02T02:48:14Z")
If you looked at the sun at noon it would appear white. Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![DrForrester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@DrForrester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrForrester)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/125 "2017-07-02T03:02:44Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > No. The light looks white because our retinal pigments are optimized to the spectrum of a yellow star as filtered through a nitrogen atmosphere. If that’s true, I’d love to know more about it. Do you have a citation, by chance? ---
**Author:** ![DrForrester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@DrForrester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrForrester)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/126 "2017-07-02T03:26:01Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > No. The light looks white because our retinal pigments are optimized to the spectrum of a yellow star as filtered through a nitrogen atmosphere. [Here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunlight#/media/File:Solar_spectrum_en.svg) is a graphic from Wikipedia that pretty well sums up this subject. Have a look at the irradiance in the visible portion of the spectrum. It’s fairly, but not perfectly, even. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/127 "2017-07-02T03:28:51Z")
Sunlight as seen from the surface of the Earth is pretty much what we’ve defined as our standard of “white”. I think that people mostly think of the Sun itself as yellow by contrast with the blue of the sky. And **beowulff** , if the CAD system is only displaying to three decimal places, then we’re not comparing 0.360 to 0.3603; we’re comparing 0.360 to 0.360 . And if that’s not good enough for the application we’re working on, then you need to change the settings on how many digits the CAD system displays. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/128 "2017-07-02T03:35:10Z")
That if you’re an asshole to people and love riling them up, they won’t like you and won’t want to be around you. No, they’re not ‘overly sensitive’, you’re a jerk and you aught to stop it. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/129 "2017-07-02T03:44:51Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And **beowulff** , if the CAD system is only displaying to three decimal places, then we’re not comparing 0.360 to 0.3603; we’re comparing 0.360 to 0.360 . And if that’s not good enough for the application we’re working on, then you need to change the settings on how many digits the CAD system displays. It doesn’t matter how many digits the drawing specifies. If the client measures the part and it is even .1mil over the spec (.360), then it will be rejected, and no amount of eggheaded explanation about how significant digits work is going to get them to pay for it… ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/130 "2017-07-02T13:22:32Z")
> [@purplehearingaid](#): > > It has nothing do with the way a pig is killed ! If it was killed the Kosher method is still would not be Kosher . > > [http://www.chabad.org/library/article\_cdo/aid/2376474/jewish/Pigs-Judaism.htm](http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2376474/jewish/Pigs-Judaism.htm) > My dad would tell people he was cooking a Kosher ham most people believed him . I am Jewish but didn’t grow up Kosher. Isn’t there a Yiddish expression, “Kosher chazzer fissel” ( =“Kosher pigs’ feet”) – to the general effect of “I entertain doubts as to the truthfulness / sense-making / probity, of what you are saying” ? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/131 "2017-07-02T14:13:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Sunlight as seen from the surface of the Earth is pretty much what we’ve defined as our standard of “white”. I think that people mostly think of the Sun itself as yellow by contrast with the blue of the sky. In addition to this, atmospheric distortion that makes the sun look yellow at certain times, and just artistic representations of the sun that make it yellow, some people may also be misled from hearing it referred to as a “yellow dwarf star,” as we learned in one of our science classes in grammar school. ETA: Dammit, I see **ioioio** has already made that point. ---
**Author:** ![SurrenderDorothy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/surrenderdorothy/32/1221_2.png) [@SurrenderDorothy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SurrenderDorothy)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/132 "2017-07-02T14:37:01Z")
Someone brought in zucchini to work today to give out. One of my co-workers asked two others if they liked zucchini and they were all 😕😕😕 Neither one had ever tried it. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/133 "2017-07-02T14:44:07Z")
I guess I’d better out myself. My husband bought baby cucumbers and gave me one. I said, “This looks like a pickle!” And then it dawned on me… Pickles are made from cucumbers. ---
**Author:** ![excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e8c25b/32.png) [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/excavating_for_a_mind)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/134 "2017-07-02T15:35:27Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > It doesn’t matter how many digits the drawing specifies. If the client measures the part and it is even .1mil over the spec (.360), then it will be rejected, and no amount of eggheaded explanation about how significant digits work is going to get them to pay for it… Being a customer doesn’t mean you’re right. Being a customer only means that they are the customer. An intelligent customer is not going to reject parts that meet the agreed-to requirements. In fact, an intelligent customer may even accept parts that technically may be slightly out of spec, but will work for his intended purpose. The sales guys have ways of handling customers who make unreasonable demands. I find it stunning the number of people who do not understand this. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/135 "2017-07-02T16:14:41Z")
The one that stuns me is how few people understand the “best by date” on a product. It means one and only one thing: The retailer is not obliged to refund your purchase price after the best by date, regardless of reason, whether it be spoilage, freshness, appearance, or any other characteristic of the product or its package. Contrary to widespread belief, it does NOT mean that you go into sudden throes of horrific death if you consume the product at 12:01 AM the day after the best by date. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/136 "2017-07-02T18:05:38Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > My brother and I were taking a flight one time and we had a stop in Newark. My brother decided to call his girlfriend, who lived in downstate New York, from a payphone (this was back before cell phones were common). When he got back he commented that he was surprised the phone call had been long distance. I said _“What did you expect? You were calling another state.”_ And he said _“We’re not in New York?”_ That’s understandable though. If you fly to New York City it’s reasonable to think the airport you arrive at will be in New York. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/137 "2017-07-02T18:45:47Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > The one that stuns me is how few people understand the “best by date” on a product. It means one and only one thing: The retailer is not obliged to refund your purchase price after the best by date, regardless of reason, whether it be spoilage, freshness, appearance, or any other characteristic of the product or its package. Contrary to widespread belief, it does NOT mean that you go into sudden throes of horrific death if you consume the product at 12:01 AM the day after the best by date. Why does it stun you that people don’t know the legal definition of a best by date? How did you find that out? ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/138 "2017-07-02T19:04:32Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > Why does it stun you that people don’t know the legal definition of a best by date? How did you find that out? And isn’t a best by date a marketing thing, and not an actual legal term? ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/139 "2017-07-02T19:49:40Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > To not know the dates of World War I is quite reasonable, as long as it’s not wildly off. 1914-1918 isn’t a particularly easy time frame to store in memory. > > What would be stunning would be if someone thought World War I took place after World War II, or something like that. On the first day of my college History 101 class (circa 1980), the professor stated that many college students believed that the U.S. had won the Vietnam war. The slacker sitting next to me turned and asked me if we’d won World War II. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/140 "2017-07-02T21:51:46Z")
> [@ioioio](#): > > On the first day of my college History 101 class (circa 1980), the professor stated that many college students believed that the U.S. had won the Vietnam war. The slacker sitting next to me turned and asked me if we’d won World War II. You should have replied to him in German or Japanese. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146.md?page=8)